Chapter Eleven Alternative Ways to Present Your Research

[Pages:20]Chapter Eleven Alternative Ways to Present Your Research

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Not all Research Comes in "Papers" or "Essays"

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The Research Portfolio/Narrative Essay

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The Assignment

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A Student Example: "The Story of My Working Thesis Malfunction"

by Amanda Kenger.

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The Web-based Research Project

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The Advantages of the Web-based Research Project

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Graphics, Multimedia, Hypertext

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A Broad, Diverse, and International Audience

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Facilitates Collaboration

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The Disadvantages of the Web-based Research Project

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Hardware and Software Access

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Learning HTML and Other "Computer Things"

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Time, Time, Time

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Web Publishing versus "hypertext"

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A Web Writing Recipe: What You Need to Get Started, and Where

You Can Go To Get Help

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The Assignment

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A Student Example: "The Corruption Surrounding University

Athletics Web Site," By Casey K. Copeman

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The Poster Session Project

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The Assignment

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A Program-wide Poster Session: The Eastern Michigan University

"Celebration of Student Writing"

Not All Research Comes in "Papers" or Essays" In Chapter Ten, "The Research Essay," I describe the process for writing a conventional research essay. While research essay writing tasks vary quite a bit, there are some general guidelines that you will want to consider when you are asked by a college professor to write a "research paper" or "research essay."

Of course, the traditional essay form (typed, double-spaced, thesis-driven, written in a linear "from beginning to end" style) is still the most common writing assignment in college classrooms, and this will probably remain the case for some time to come. Increasingly however, college teachers are considering alternatives to this form. Some of these alternatives have actually been common in composition classes for a while now-- for example, the "I-Search" research essay (which was pioneered by Ken Macrorie in the late 1980s) and portfoliobased writing projects and assessments.

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

The Process of Research Writing Chapter Eleven, Alternative Ways to Present Your Research, 2

Others alternatives are more recent. The increased power and availability of computer technology has played a significant role in presenting research in a way that is different from the conventional essay. For example, the World Wide Web allows (some might even say requires) writers to publish documents that include graphics and photographs, and even audio and video files.

In some ways, these alternatives to the research essay still have the same basic requirements that I've discussed in all the previous chapters in The Process of Research Writing. After all, you are still trying to convince and inform an audience about a particular point, and you do this with your use and interpretation of evidence.

In other ways, presenting your research in an alternative fashion and with alternative sorts of evidence change in interesting ways the role and place in research in both academic and non-academic settings. Besides that, writing about your research in a "non-traditional" way might shed a different and informative light on your topic, and it might even be fun.

Obviously, there is no limit to the number of alternatives and variations to the traditional research essay. In this chapter, I will describe three ways of approaching research writing differently: The research portfolio/narrative essay, the Web-based research project, and the poster session project. These projects could be completed either along with or instead of a more traditional research essay, and I would also encourage you to experiment and explore other alternatives and combinations of projects.

The Research Portfolio/Narrative Essay

A "research portfolio" is a collection of writing you've done in the process of completing your research. Of course, the details about what is included in this portfolio will vary based on the class assignments. However, if you've been following through the exercises in Part Two of this textbook, chances are your portfolio will consist of some combination of these projects:

? The topic proposal exercise ? The critique exercise ? The antithesis exercise ? The categorization and evaluation exercise ? The annotated bibliography exercise

A research portfolio might also include your work on some of the various exercises in The Process of Research Writing and other assignments given to you from your teacher.

The goal of the exercises in Part II of this book is to help you work through the process of research writing, and to help you write an essay along the lines of what I describe in Chapter Ten, "The Research Essay." However, as an

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

The Process of Research Writing Chapter Eleven, Alternative Ways to Present Your Research, 3 alternative to using this previous work to write a research essay, you could write an essay about these exercises to tell the story of researching your topic. This project, "The Research Portfolio/Narrative Essay" is similar to a more conventional research essay in that the writer uses cited evidence to support the point exemplified in a working thesis. However, it is different in that the writer focuses on the process of researching his topic, a narrative about how he developed and explored the working thesis. The Assignment Write a seven to ten page narrative essay about the process of working through the previously assigned exercises in the class. Be sure to explain to your audience-- your teacher, classmates, and other readers interested in your topic-- the steps you took to first develop and then work through your research project.

A Student Example: "The Story of My Working Thesis Malfunction" by Amanda Kenger

In the course where Amanda wrote this essay, students were given the option to either follow the Chapter Ten assignment for writing a more "conventional" research essay, or to write a research portfolio/narrative essay following the assignment described in this chapter. Amanda said that she originally chose to write a portfolio/narrative essay because "I thought it would be a piece of cake. I was wrong." She soon realized that this assignment required her to think carefully about how to present her research to her readers, and it required her to follow an approach that was different from her previous academic writing experiences. Overall, Amanda was glad she chose this writing option "because it gave me an opportunity to do something out of the ordinary."

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

The Process of Research Writing Chapter Eleven, Alternative Ways to Present Your Research, 4 The Story of My Working Thesis Malfunction

When we were fist given the assignment for the final research project, I was sure that I was going to write a traditional research paper. I have done all of the research, written out the annotated bibliography, and have created a fairly decisive working thesis. However, I finally decided to work through the research portfolio essay option after looking at the work I created during the semester and realizing how much things have changed from start to finish.

I wrote four essays that examine my thesis and my sources and my working thesis changed with each essay. It transformed from my original idea that three events in history changed television censorship to my final working thesis, "Janet Jackson's 2004 Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction has changed the way that Americans view television."

Each of the essays I wrote has had an effect on my final working thesis. This is especially surprising for me because previously, when I came up with an idea or a thesis, my mind is usually made up. But I think that story of working through the different exercises this semester shows how much my original working thesis changed.

I first decided on the idea for my original working thesis through writing my topic proposal essay. This essay got me thinking about the evolution of television censorship from shows like I Love Lucy to Desperate Housewives. I began to think of events in television history that would have caused a domino effect in censorship. So in my topic proposal essay, I said that there were three events in TV history that drastically changed the way that television was censored. The first of

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

The Process of Research Writing Chapter Eleven, Alternative Ways to Present Your Research, 5 these three events was Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show. His sexual dance moves sent shockwaves through conservative America. For the second event, I chose George Carlin's classic comedy skit "Filthy Words." The skit included "seven words you can never say on television" and was played over the radio by a small town DJ. The controversy surrounding the skit eventually snowballed into a lawsuit, and finally a Supreme Court case. For the third event I chose Janet Jackson's 2004 Super Bowl halftime show performance. Her "wardrobe malfunction" on live television became grounds for the institution of a delay on all live broadcasts. One of the reasons that I decided to choose three events was because I wanted to trace some longer trends in television, and also because I was worried about not having enough evidence to support my thesis in a research essay. I can see now though that I had too much going on in my original thesis. I was going to have far too much information and my paper would probably lose its focus. Also, when I look back at my topic proposal essay now, I see that I only cited one reference each for Presley and Carlin, and I wrote that I found, "hundreds of articles on several databases and on the World Wide Web" about Jackson. That should have been my first red flag that the bulk of the information available to me was going to be on Jackson. Regardless, when I completed my topic proposal essay, my working thesis was, "Three main events in history have changed censorship: Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show, George Carlin's Supreme Court case, and Janet Jackson on the 2004 Super Bowl." My evaluation of my own working thesis continued throughout my critique essay. For this essay, I chose to

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

The Process of Research Writing Chapter Eleven, Alternative Ways to Present Your Research, 6 critique an article called "The New Puritanism" by Eric Gillin and Greg Lindsay, published in Advertising Age and accessed electronically through the Wilson Select database. This article investigated the consequences of Jackson's Super Bowl stunt and, to my surprise, these consequences were not only felt in television. The wave of conservatism that Jackson created was felt strongly in the world of advertising and big business. The article poses the seemingly unanswerable question of how to make everyone content with mass media content. Gillin and Lindsay lean towards the idea that the conflict that lies in censorship is a generational one. They write "74% of consumers ages 12 to 20 said CBS overreacted in its response". They also describe some of the possible solutions that have been proposed to solve the censorship conflict. Some of these suggestions include running parallel ad campaigns with designated ratings. This article finally caused me to realize the seriousness of Jackson's actions. "The New Puritanism" pointed out several ways in which advertising companies and big businesses like Wal-Mart altered their campaigns and content after the incident. For example, Wal-Mart pulled Maxim magazine off of their shelves and Budweiser pulled some of their commercials off ofthe air. Gillin and Lindsay describe an impossible situation in both television and advertising, and warn, "sex or violence... may be off the mainstream for good" (6). Gillin's and Lindsay's article first got me thinking about the fusion of academic culture and popular culture. Going into this project, I assumed that every academic article was going to take the side of the FCC. Much to my

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

The Process of Research Writing Chapter Eleven, Alternative Ways to Present Your Research, 7 surprise, almost all the academic articles I found carried warnings of the FCC's over-involvement in the media. This article also made me look once again at my working thesis. When I was searching for an article to critique, I could not find any on Carlin or Elvis. The sources that I had for the Carlin and Elvis consisted mostly of web sites or page long narratives. I found it very difficult to locate any article that I would be able to use in my critique essay. Another red flag. However, after my critique essay I felt more confident in stating that Jackson's halftime show changed media censorship. When it came time for me to write my antithesis essay, I was really worried. Almost all of the articles I found warned about the dangers of the FCC's power. I was concerned that I would not be able to find any evidence that supported my antithetical arguments. I finally found my answer on a website created by United States Senator Sam Brownback. Senator Brownback served as one of the sponsors for the Broadcast Decency Act of 2004. He wants stronger regulations from the FCC and other parts of the government. On his web site, Brownback stated that Jackson's halftime show "is just the most memorable example of the growing volume of inappropriate material that is broadcast..." He argues that Jackson's halftime show did not serve as an important event in censorship history, only the most recognizable. Brownback goes on: We live in a nation where we hold the First Amendment in high regard. In an effort to maintain the free exchange of information, thoughts, and opinions, we strive to avoid government involvement in communications content. At the same time, we are nation raising children. With the turning of a tuning

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

The Process of Research Writing Chapter Eleven, Alternative Ways to Present Your Research, 8 knob, or a click of the remote, Americans are presented with the content of the public airwaves and the culture it generates. Broadcasters can express any viewpoint and idea they want, but they have a legal and moral duty to ensure that viewers, especially minors, are not presented with explicit material. In response to this, I found an article on the web site "Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy" by Wendy McElroy titled "Censorship is Not a Solution for Trashy TV." She directly challenges Brownback and says that the consequences of the Broadcast Decency Act "may be far worse than a bit of trashy exhibitionism on TV." McElroy's article defended my idea that Jackson's halftime show changed censorship in that it propelled the Broadcast Decency Act into the public interest. Critic Tom Shales, writing for Television Week, agrees. In an article I found via the Wilson Select database titled "The Real Indecency Is The Show In Washington," Shales said: Clearly the saddest and most infuriating irony of the whole mess is that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell is demagoguing this "issue" into a national frenzy, or at least a federal frenzy, about indecency in the media, thus distracting attention from his attempt to impose a radical relaxation of media ownership rules on the country. When I wrote my antithesis paper I was still thinking of using Carlin's Supreme Court case in my thesis. I included a paragraph arguing that Carlin's "filthy words" are still filthy by today's standards. I still believe this to be true, and I think I made a solid argument defending my thesis. The problem was that I did not include any

Steven D. Krause | | Spring 2007

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